[4][5] Two days after the initial hostage-taking, three detainees were released by the police in Hanoi; one was the main representative of the people in the land dispute, Lê Đình Kình, an 82-year-old man who was injured and hospitalized.

[9] The crisis was a rare act of defiance in Vietnam, where anger at official corruption and land seizures simmers but is usually met with a forceful response from the police.

[10] The incident was triggered by the Đồng Tâm commune's opposition to the Mỹ Đức District government assigning their land to the Viettel Group, a company owned and managed by the Vietnamese Ministry of Defence, for the construction of their factory complex.

[11] According to the newspaper Người Cao Tuổi, the area of Miếu Môn (adjacent to Đồng Tâm) served as the site of a temporary airport during the Vietnam War.

[full citation needed] In 1980, after the Sino-Vietnamese War, the government of Vietnam retrieved 208 ha (510 acres) to build an airport.

Because the project was not implemented, Brigade 28 of the Vietnam People's Air Force returned the land to Đồng Tâm.

[18] National Assembly members Lê Thanh Vân of the city of Hải Phòng and Dương Trung Quốc of the province of Đồng Nai agreed that Chung should discuss the issue with the residents of Đồng Tâm; Quốc said, "(To build) belief is not better than to speak with the people".

Lê Thanh Vân said, "A military project to build an airport begun in 1980, stopping and starting because of national security, wasting agricultural land.

[25] Vietnamese police began a criminal investigation of farmers in Đồng Tâm on June 13, despite a promise by Mayor Chung not to prosecute them as a result of hostage-release negotiations during an April standoff between villagers and local government.

The investigation focused on the illegal detention of 38 police officers and officials and vandalism allegedly committed by farmers after a clash over the government's seizure of land in the village.

[26] At dawn on January 9, 2020, more than one thousand policemen carried out a raid on Đồng Tâm and killed village representative Lê Đình Kình.

Three police officers were killed, and 20 villagers who were involved in the land dispute and hostage-taking were arrested and prosecuted.